Patient-Reported Quality of Life After Breast Reconstruction: A One-Year Longitudinal Study Using the WHO-QOL Survey.

Background: Patient-reported quality of life (QOL) is an important measure of the impact that breast reconstruction has on postmastectomy patients. This study seeks to describe psychosocial outcomes after breast reconstruction and to identify factors that influence them.

Methods: All patients who underwent immediate postmastectomy reconstruction by the senior author between 2009 and 2011 were offered participation in this study.

Prevalence of Body Dysmorphic Disorder Among Patients Seeking Breast Reconstruction.

Background: Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterized by a preoccupation with a slight or imagined defect in physical appearance. It has significant implications for patients who desire breast reconstruction, because patient satisfaction with the aesthetic outcome is a substantial contributor to the success of the procedure.

Objectives: The authors estimated the prevalence of BDD among women seeking breast reconstruction by surveying patients with the previously validated Dysmorphic Concerns Questionnaire (DCQ).

Patient motivations for choosing postmastectomy breast reconstruction.

Introduction: The number of women who undergo postmastectomy breast reconstruction is reported to be around 40% and, although increased from previous decades, seems lower than expected. The purpose of this report is to investigate and improve our understanding of women's motivations for choosing reconstruction.

Methods: We prospectively surveyed consecutive patients referred for possible reconstructive surgery at Emory University Hospital between December 2008 and September 2010.

The effects of breast size in unilateral postmastectomy breast reconstruction.

Background: Postmastectomy breast reconstruction is offered to women with breast cancer regardless of body habitus and breast size. The decision regarding technique for breast reconstruction includes patient preference, risk factors, and physical characteristics. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between preoperative breast size and choice of reconstruction, choice of contralateral breast symmetry procedure, and incidence of complications.

Intrauterine growth restriction transiently delays alveolar formation and disrupts retinoic acid receptor expression in the lung of female rat pups.

Background: We showed that intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) increases distal airspace wall thickness at birth (postnatal age 0; P0) in rat pups (saccular stage of lung development). However, that report did not assess whether the saccular phenotype persisted postnatally or occurred in males or females, nor did the report identify a potential molecular pathway for the saccular phenotype at P0. We hypothesized that IUGR persistently delays alveolar formation and disrupts retinoic acid receptor (RAR) mRNA and protein levels in the lung of rat pups in a postnatal age- and sex-specific manner.

Chronic lung disease in preterm lambs: effect of daily vitamin A treatment on alveolarization.

Neonatal chronic lung disease is characterized by failed formation of alveoli and capillaries, and excessive deposition of matrix elastin, which are linked to lengthy mechanical ventilation (MV) with O(2)-rich gas. Vitamin A supplementation has improved respiratory outcome of premature infants, but there is little information about the structural and molecular manifestations in the lung that occur with vitamin A treatment. We hypothesized that vitamin A supplementation during prolonged MV, without confounding by antenatal steroid treatment, would improve alveolar secondary septation, decrease thickness of the mesenchymal tissue cores between distal air space walls, and increase alveolar capillary growth.

Nasal ventilation alters mesenchymal cell turnover and improves alveolarization in preterm lambs.

Rationale: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a frequent cause of morbidity in preterm infants that is characterized by prolonged need for ventilatory support in an intensive care environment. BPD is characterized histopathologically by persistently thick, cellular distal airspace walls. In normally developing lungs, by comparison, remodeling of the immature parenchymal architecture is characterized by thinning of the future alveolar walls, a process predicated on cell loss through apoptosis.